The City of Cape Town marks World Environment Day on Sunday by announcing it has dealt with more than 8000 environmental health complaints last year.
With World Environmental Health Day commemorated annually on 26 September, the focus this year was to assess and control environmental factors that can potentially affect health.
The City’s Environmental Health Service says the top complaints include; unhygienic conditions, noise pollution and air pollution.
According to the City, they have done extensive work in ensuring that hey keep the environment clean and safe. They have installed and serviced well over 60 000 block baiting service points for vector control in public areas and informal settlements. The City claims to have collected R1,6m in fines for transgressions in terms of the National Environmental Management Air Quality Act.
These statistics only represented a fraction of the work that Environmental Health Service combs through in a year.
Mayoral Committee Member for Community Service and Health, Patricia Van der Ross, says they have also attended to a number of COVID-19 related complaints this year.
“The list is incredibly long and I don’t think we fully appreciate the critical role that they play in our health and well-being. Apart from the more well-known aspects, our EHPs even conduct inspections at barbershops and salons, and also have a hand in matters relating to the safe keeping of animals. Let’s not forget how crucial they were to ensuring compliance with COVID-19 protocols at restaurants, shopping malls and other public facilities,’ said the Mayoral Committee Member for Community Service and Health,” says Councillor Van der Ross.
